One of my best performing plants all summer long was my Genovese basil. I had several containers that I had been growing it in with various tomato plants – it was in with the Green Zebras, the Early Girls, pretty much any tomato plant pot I could fit it in. I did this because it’s generally believed that planting basil within a foot or two from tomato plants will improve the flavor of the plants as well as drive off insects.

Well, having only grown these plants for the first time this year, I can’t speak to any effect on flavor from the proximity of the basil. And as far as insects go, it certainly didn’t do too much to ward off the hornworms, but apart from them I really had no issue.
And for the most part, the basil grew like mad. I couldn’t keep up with it. By this point in the summer, the stalks have started to resemble tree trunks.

As the fall approaches and a chill occasions to enter the air, I decided I should do something to preserve the huge amounts of basil being produced instead of letting it go to waste.

And so, pesto.

Pesto is great because it’s so easy to make at home – only four ingredients or so – it freezes well, and it can be used in countless dishes.

In this post I’ll go over a simple recipe for some homemade basil, and show an easy method for preserving it all through the winter.

This recipe calls for olive oil, you want to use some quality stuff here because – like making mayonnaise, it’s a prime ingredient of the recipe and the flavor will show through.

You also need a food processor for this. It’s not really avoidable. You could maybe make it in a blender, but you will need to grind up nuts – pine nuts or walnuts – and that’s a little tough without a processor. Theoretically you could do it with a mortar and pestle if you were dedicated, but again, go with the food processor here.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: None

Ingredients…

- 4 cups basil leaves
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 cup walnuts (pine nuts are the traditional option, I like using walnuts myself)
- 4-5 medium size cloves of garlic
- 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste

If you are planning on freezing this batch, leave the cheese out and add it when you are serving the pesto. It won’t freeze very well and you might get a bit of an off flavor from it.

You can easily double or halve this recipe, depending on what quantity of basil you’ve got on your hands.

1. Pick and wash basil leaves.

2. Pulse walnuts or pine nuts in food processor until well ground.

3. Add basil leaves and process in processor.

4. Mince garlic cloves and slowly add to processor while running.

5. Gradually pour olive oil in while processor is running, and salt and pepper to taste.

(6). Add cheese, if not freezing for storage.

To freeze and store, layer some plastic wrap into an ice tray and fill it up then cover with plastic. This will give you little serving size frozen pesto pieces, which you can heat and add cheese to when you are ready to serve. Alternatively, you can just freeze the whole thing in a big bag, but it is a little more unwieldy to deal with when serving if you go that way.

Not a particularly appetizing color, I admit.

As I mentioned, there are countless uses for pesto – you can use it with pasta, grilled chicken, chicken sandwiches, roasted or grilled vegetables, fresh cheese, warm breads, and lots more.

When I made this batch, I froze one and made another for some fresh mozzarella and tomatoes from the garden. Very simple, very delicious.

I’m going to be straightforward here. I’m still kind of working on figs. Still trying to develop a taste for them a little bit. But it’s coming along.

My experience with figs up until maybe a year or so ago was limited to the Newton variety. Which, naturally, never particularly blew me away. But I have always been a bit curious about the sweet, little, beautifully intricate looking fruit, so any time I’ve had the chance to partake I’ve generally accepted the opportunity.

And it’s been hit or miss. I’ve had some figs, raw, from a farmer’s market that truly blew me away – and I’ve had some figs prepared from a fine dining restaurant that were chewy and boring. But of course I suppose, even if one truly does love some fruit, or some ingredient (oh, peaches…) – it still remains entirely possible for the ingredient in question to be butchered beyond recognition.

Figs are known to be one of the sweetest fruits on earth. Long before refined sugars (and of course HFCS, er, wait, no, I guess I mean corn sugar), cooked figs were used as sweeteners instead.

The fig, also, has a longstanding history as a symbol of female sexuality – many believe the fruit of the forbidden tree of Eden was in fact a fig, and not an apple. After all, didn’t the biblical couple use fig leaves to preserve their decorum in the garden?

Regardless of your relationship with figs – love or hate, friend or foe, well-acquainted or not even Facebook friends – I’m pretty confident you will have a hard time not enjoying this dish. It is definitely one of my favorite ways to enjoy figs. This is a wonderful dessert to usher in the fall, served warm on a cool September or October evening. The recipe comes from the Olin Fox Farms CSA group, who delivered me my first batch of figs of the season a number of weeks back.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients…

- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 4 ripe pears
- 4-6 figs
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 vanilla bean (or 1 tbsp vanilla extract)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.

2. Toast the almonds, either in a toaster oven or in a skillet in the oven – about 5-7 minutes. The second you can smell them, they are done – remove them quickly, and don’t forget that carryover cooking will finish the job.

3. Melt the butter in an oven-proof skillet over medium heat.

4. Stir sugar into butter until dissolved.

5. While sugar is dissolving, slice and core the pears, and slice figs in halves or quarters.

6. When sugar has dissolved, move skillet off the heat and stir in vanilla, cinnamon, and allspice. Take a knife to slice the vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds into the mixture. Add pod to the mixture as well.

7. Add figs and pears to skillet, and mix well to coat the fruit. Remove figs from pan and set aside.

8. Put the skillet, with pears, into the oven at 450 F. Roast for about 10 minutes, give or take a few depending on the size of the pears. If they are large you may need as much as 15 minutes.

9. Pull the skillet out of the oven, add the figs back in, and return to the oven. Roast for an additional 5 minutes.

10. Remove skillet from oven, stir mixture thoroughly, and serve.

Extra credit: top with crème fraiche, sour cream, ice cream, whipped cream, ricotta cheese, etc., etc. (note – this is not included in the calorie estimate).

The fig is your friend. Don’t be afraid of the fig. You love the fig. The fig loves you.

It’s starting to get chilly out again, and fall is only a week or two away now. I love this time of year because you still get the tail end of the summer vegetables – most are still available even if maybe not as plentiful – and you finally get a break from what is usually some horrendous heat.

And it means you can use your oven again freely, without fear of the Sweltering Ungodly Hellfire Kitchen of Doom™.

So on that note, a casserole.

This went over very well with the wife, and it’s a great dish because it’s one of the sort you can riff on really easily depending on what vegetables – or even meats, for that matter – you have available. I had some eggplant from my last CSA delivery that needed to be used ASAP, plus a few other things that probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer either.

I still more or less consider myself an eggplant noob, so I’m always looking for new recipes to use it in. The basis for this one came from EggplantRecipes.net (fittingly enough), but I’ve made some significant changes. Added some chicken (it’s easily a filling vegetarian dish if you simply leave it out), left out the pimento, and plain forgot the onion.

I also subbed in some squash, since I didn’t really have quite enough eggplant to go around. My CSA delivers some really tasty eggplant, but it tends to never quite be enough.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go ahead and begin.

For this recipe you will need one baking dish, one blender, two medium-sized mixing bowls, and a couple empty bellies.

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients…

- 2 small chicken breasts (about 10-12 oz.)
- 2 large eggplants (or in my case, several small ones and a squash)
- 1 cup bread crumbs (make your own if at all possible)
- 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 medium size tomatoes
- 1 celery stalk
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper (or other pepper of your choice)
- 1/2 tsp fresh oregano
- 1/2 tsp powdered saffron
- 1/2 cup soy milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup cashews
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

1. Trim and dice up the chicken. Make sure your pieces are small so that they will cook through quickly.

2. In a small pan with olive oil, cook the chicken over medium heat until there is still just a little pink left. Don’t cook it quite all the way yet, because you’ll be baking it as well and otherwise it will be overdone and chewy. Just, sort of, pre-cook it a bit.

3. Slice eggplant into discs and line the bottom of a medium size baking dish, then salt and sprinkle half of the brown sugar over top. Reserve some of the eggplant for a second layer.

4. In one of your mixing bowls, add bread crumbs and the remainder of the brown sugar and mix well.

5. Seed and dice tomatoes, bell pepper, celery, and add to the other mixing bowl. Use a microplane to grate the garlic clove over it, or just mince it with a knife and add to the bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt.

6. Season vegetable bowl with oregano and saffron.

Saffron is the most expensive spice out there. But it’s not expensive because it’s rare, it’s expensive because of how tedious it is to harvest. Saffron is harvested from a saffron crocus – a relatively easy to grow flower – but it must be harvested individually, manually, as the threads are pulled from inside an open flower. What’s more is that the flowers are only open a few hours a day, usually before sunrise. And the threads only have about a 20 day window in which they can be harvested. They grow from bulbs, maybe I’ll try to grow some someday.

You can leave the saffron out but flavor and color will be missing. It will still make for a good dish, though. Unfortunately, there are no great substitutes for saffron – some people suggest turmeric, which comes close in color, but really is not the same flavor at all.

7. Layer vegetable mixture with spices over eggplant in baking dish.

8. Add mostly-cooked chicken, and half of the cashews.

9. Top with remaining eggplant slices.

10. Sprinkle half of the bread crumb mixture over top of the final eggplant layer.

11. Add remaining cashews, heavy cream, and soy milk to a blender or food processor. Pulse until smooth, try not to whip the heavy cream too much.

12. Pour milk mixture over eggplant in the baking dish.

13. Add shredded cheese and remaining bread crumbs to the top of the dish. Go light on the cheese, we’re not making a pizza here. You could really abstain from it entirely, but I thought it will help increase my chances of spousal approval. I was right.

14. Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes, or until top is a golden brown.

15. Eat!

I was so hungry at this point, I couldn’t even focus. This was delicious, and it re-heats pretty well too. You’ll get about 6-8 servings out of it.

I can’t believe summer is almost over. It seems like just the other day I was writing about my favorite things that summer brings, and now here we are staring fall in the face. Which is not to say I’m not eager for the cooler temperatures, the beautiful changing foliage of the trees, and the crisp air. By all means, bring it on. But still, how did it manage to get here so fast?

With Labor Day weekend officially landing, I’m going to take a wild guess and say there’s a good number of you all with BBQ plans in your immediate future. We’re looking at some fantastic weather ahead of us in my area, despite Hurricane Earl being just off the east coast now.

So on that note I bring you an assortment of some awesome things to take to your BBQ, care of myself and some of my favorite other bloggers. Some are prep at home, some you can just do straight on the grill. All are guaranteed hits.

Drinks

1. Blackberry Tom Collins from the White on Rice Couple.
2. Mint Juleps from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
3. Peach Coolers, also from the White on Rice Couple.
4. Fresh Blueberry Margaritas from me, MSCK.
5. White Peach Sangria also from MSCK.

Sides

6. Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts from Savory Sweet Life.
7. Caprese Salad from Kim at Rustic Garden Bistro (or also right here at MSCK).
8. Cheese Fritters with Balsamic Sun-Dried Tomato Dipping Sauce from Krysta at evil chef mom.
9. Three Ways to Do Watermelon, also from evil chef mom.
10. Classic Cornbread from Ali at Three Baking Sheets to the Wind.
11. Vegetable Tian from Saint Tigerlily.
12. Roasted Rosemary Nut Mix also from Saint Tigerlily.
13. Crispy Roasted Chickpeas from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
14. Homemade Hummus from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
15. Chorizo Cheese Dip from the White on Rice Couple.
16. Mushroom Pockets from me at MSCK.

Mains

17. Sweet Chili Ribs from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
18. Soy Citrus Planked Chicken also from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen.
19. Perfect Burgers, or at least my take on them at MSCK.
20. Thomas Keller’s Ribs from me at MSCK.
21. Filipino Chicken Barbecue from Erika at the Ivory Hut.

Desserts

22. Candied Grapefruit Peels – or – Orangettes from Smitten Kitchen .
23. Grilled Peaches with Ricotta Cheese from Alice at Savory Sweet Life.
24. Lemon Bars from Ali at Three Baking Sheets to the Wind.

Did I miss anything? Do you have a BBQ favorite I forgot? Please share with the class!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

The Tomato Consommé.

Mythical, magical, wonderful tomato consommé.

I’ve been waiting until the height of the tomato season to give this dish my first attempt, but man if I haven’t read about it everywhere. A consommé is one of the critical skills taught to all first year students at the CIA (that’s the culinary institute, not the intelligence one – although, maybe we’d make a few more friends internationally if we started teaching some of our boys how to make a mean soup). As I read through Michael Ruhlman’s book, The Making of a Chef, it was mentioned countless times. The delicacy of maintaining your raft, the importance of the clarity of your consommé, the power of the flavors of the clarified soup. I was intrigued at the complexity of the dish, at the science behind it.

And then I had my first taste of a tomato consommé at the Slow Food Annual Farm Dinner about a month ago. Heavenly. Incredible. It’s like a soup that takes a short-cut through your taste buds and goes immediately to the receptors in your brain and screams TOMATO! – that’s how powerful the flavor is. But even then it’s not overwhelming. It is amazing.

So I set my sights on Summer Fest 2010 week five – tomatoes. This would be my moment. My first real attempt at a tomato consommé.

At this point I realize you may think I’m getting a bit dramatic, but I assure you it is fully warranted. This is a labor and ingredient intensive dish, and in creating it you *will* be working some serious magic in the kitchen. Though I approached it with a degree of trepidation myself, there is no real reason to be afraid… and your effort will reward you in spades. Assuming that that’s what you want, you know, spades. Personally I’ve never felt a great need for spades, but I’m always getting rewarded with them. Always thought it was kind of weird. Speaking of which, if you need a spade – give me a call. I’m your man.

Anyway. Let’s making some freakin good-ass soup.

I used the Epicurious recipe as my base for this, really only made a couple small substitutions with some herbs and such.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Chill time: 2-3 hours

These are very rough estimates. I made the consommé while I was preparing a dinner so I had a number of other things going, but if you focused on it solely you could get it done in an hour to an hour and a half. It does require your attention, though, so try not to get too crazy.

You will need 1 large stock pot, 1 smaller stock pot or large sauce pan, and a sieve, or a chinois if you’ve got it.

Ingredients…

- 5 lbs fresh, wonderful, luscious tomatoes – the best you can get
- 2 large onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1-2 lbs fresh fennel
- 2 tbsp fresh basil
- 2 tbsp fresh tarragon
- 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 egg whites
- 1/2 cup ice, lightly crushed if cubes are large
- a large handful of cherry or grape tomatoes for garnish, sliced or halved lengthwise
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Sherry vinegar

Yes, that’s a massive amount of egg whites. I know. And the whites aren’t used in the final dish, instead it’s a tool for clarification. I reserved the egg yolks in a mason jar and used them for breakfast the next day to minimize waste. Make sure you know where your eggs are coming from and are aware of the massive egg recall that’s gonig on right now.

Okay, so first step is to coarsely chop your onions, garlic, and fennel. Reserve a few fronds of fennel for garnish, but toss the rest – along with onions and garlic – into a large stock pot with olive oil, and soften it all up over medium heat for about 12-15 minutes.

While the stock pot is warming up, coarsely chop up your tomatoes and puree in a food processor. Add puree to onion mixture, toss with sea salt and half of your pepper.

Simmer tomato puree in onions, garlic, and fennel on medium heat about 20 minutes.

Next, pour the tomato mixture through a sieve or a chinoise (I want one so bad), into a second pot.

Now that the mixture is in the second pot, you need to let it cool. You can accelerate this by putting it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes or so, or just leave it on the stove for awhile. The reason behind this is that you are soon going to put the egg whites into the mixture and you need them all to heat up together, concurrently, for it to cook properly. If you put the egg whites into a hot tomato mixture they will cook immediately.

So here’s what’s so cool about this dish. When you add the egg whites to the tomato mixture, they are going to sink to the bottom of the pan and slowly start to cook. As they cook, they will rise up through the soup, and as the proteins in the egg whites bind together they will clarify the soup and bring everything but the strong flavor of the tomatoes up to the top of the pot with them. This will then form a raft on the top layer of the soup, while underneath it continues to be clarified as it cooks.

Once the tomato mixture has cooled, put the egg whites into a separate bowl with the crushed ice (don’t use full cubes), herbs, salt, and remaining pepper. Whisk the whites into a bubbly froth, then quickly add to the tomato mixture. Whisk vigorously in the mixture a few times, then let it heat up to a simmer.

Because of the delicacy of the raft, and the importance that it is maintained and doesn’t break apart (if it breaks apart it will all mix up with the soup), you want to bring it up to a simmer very slowly. Keep a close eye on it. Once the raft is substantial, break a little hole in it like in the picture below.

As the consommé simmers, you will see bubbles, foam, come up through your hole. Spoon it out with a ladle and discard. When the bubbles stop coming and the consommé looks clear underneath, then you’re ready to take it out.

Removing the consommé from underneath the raft is a delicate procedure. You want to break as little of the raft as possible, but you have to get underneath it to remove the liquid. I had read recently about a method that Michael Symon uses for his consommé where he takes a length of plastic tubing to siphon it out, thereby making only a very small break in the raft. Well, I tried this. Didn’t work. Couldn’t get a siphon going… I imagine it would have been more successful with a restaurant size stock pot because you’d have more to work with, but with my little sauce pan.. not so much.

Instead, I just enlarged my break a little bit more with a ladle and spooned it all out as gently as I could. Once you’ve removed all of the consommé from the pot, refrigerate it for 2-3 hours and serve chilled with a frond of fennel, and a slice or two of tomato. Discard the raft.

So mine went pretty well. It was still a bit cloudy (I would have clearly failed my CIA Skills exam), but for a first go I felt pretty good about it. And, cloudy or not, it was incredibly, amazingly delicious. Worth every minute of the effort.

I’d be lying if I said I’m going to make this regularly (though I would if I had the time), but for special occasions and guests it is a wonderful dish for the summertime. This has also put the idea of a corn consommé into my head, which – although I’ve never heard of or tasted one – I think could be really spectacular and I’m going to try to attempt it before the summer is out.

So what else is being posted for Summer Fest tomato week?

• Nicole at Pinch My Salt: What to do with slow-roasted tomatoes
• Alison at Food2: Heirloom tomatoes
• The FN Dish: Tyler’s Ultimate Tomato Salads
• The Gilded Fork: Celebrating summer lusciousness with a tomato dossier and recipes
• Diane and Todd at White on Rice Couple: Sun-dried tomatoes (actually made in the sun!)
• Paige at The Sister Project: 3 substantial, healthy, vegetarian tomatoey main dishes
• Liz at the Cooking Channel: Easy Tomato Tart
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Tomato Jam
• Alexis at Food Network UK: The seven deadly tomato sins
• Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: Heirloom Tomato Tart with Parmesan Crust
• Michelle at Healthy Eats: Top 10 Things to Do With Tomatoes
• Marilyn at Simmer Till Done: Cherry Tomato & Maytag Blue Beignets
• Alana at Eating From the Ground Up: Roasted Green Salsa (green zebras and tomatillos), and how late August makes her hurt for New Mexico
• Caron at San Diego Foodstuff: Chunky Garden Gazpacho with Flowered Corn Tortillas and Melissa Clark’s Tomato Tarte Tatin
• Caroline at the Wright Recipes: Savory Tomato Crumble
• Judy of Divina Cucina: Tomatoes the Italian way
• Tigress in a Pickle: Over 50 ways to preserve tomatoes in jars

And if you haven’t already, take a moment to check out this fabulous tomato and corn pie or heirloom tomato stuffed with shrimp.

It’s Wednesday again, and that means Summer Fest is back for more. This week’s topic is stone fruit, which until very recently was an unknown term to me. I can’t resist a good peach recipe, or even just a good fresh peach, so I quickly knew what I’d be posting about.

First a word about the ingredients. You *need* fresh peaches here. Don’t even bother with the canned stuff. It’s just not worth the time. Amanda and I were on a trip down to the eastern shore recently and I couldn’t resist the myriad local produce stands along the side of the road, so I had stocked up on more fresh peaches than we could probably handle without some clever tactics. This bread pudding calls for three pounds of peaches – which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-9 peaches – so it’s a good way to tackle quite a few of them.

As an aside, I had planned to write a post about our little weekend beach trip, but the food experiences there just made me all kinds of stabby and I really didn’t feel I needed to write such a negative post. Suffice it to say, after driving through about 2-3 hours worth of Maryland’s tastiest corn fields, I was not a happy camper to be served canned corn at all the restaurants. Thumbs down.

Anyway, enough of that, who wants some bread pudding?

Prep time: 20-25 minutes
Bake time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients…

- 3 pounds peaches
- 4 cups torn French or Challah bread
- 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
- 3 eggs
- 4 tbsp butter (half-stick)
- 1/2 cup peach nectar
- 1 1/4 cup hot water
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup crushed pecans
- 1/2 cup whole pecans

Ingredients for sauce…

- 1/2 cup peach nectar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp heavy cream

As tends to be the case with baking, there are a lot of big question marks on the food miles chart this time. I’m particularly not really sure about the condensed milk, as I don’t know much about the process behind it at all, and I’m next to certain that it’s not from happy cows. I gave that stuff a mean glare when using it though, so that helped me feel a little better anyway. I’m sure if I could get accurate counts on the mileage many of those products traveled it would put me well over the 5,000 mark. I wish, at the very least, I could source some nuts and spices that were Fair Trade certified, but I can’t even seem to find that much.

And so on to the recipe.

First step is to skin the peaches. This is done by using the same method for skinning tomatoes that we used a little ways back. Make an X with knife on the bottom of the peach, and drop it into water at a rolling boil for about 5 minutes. Remove, and dunk in a bowl full of ice water to stop any carryover cooking. After they have cooled in the bowl, you should be able to take them out and the skin will slide right off.

Once the skins are removed, dice up the peaches. Size of the dice is up to you – if you want big peachy bites, leave them a bit large.

Pour condensed milk and crack the three eggs into a large bowl, mix well.

Tear or cut the bread up into small bite sized pieces, and add to the bowl. Reserve some bread for the topping. Mix well and moisten everything.

Melt the butter in the microwave, and add it to the bowl.

Add diced peaches, vanilla, cinnamon, hot water, peach nectar, and crushed pecans to the bowl.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

After contents of the bowl are well mixed and saturated, pour it out into a 13×9 baking pan. Add some larger pieces of bread and whole pecans to the top, moistening slightly.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes, use the toothpick test for doneness.

While the bread pudding is baking, you can make a simple sauce on the stovetop.

Add 1/2 cup peach nectar, honey, cinnamon, vanilla, and heavy cream to a small saucepan over low heat. Mix well, and reduce to desired consistency over heat.

Remove bread pudding from the oven when it’s done, and serve with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, and top the ice cream with your sauce. A little garnish of mint won’t hurt either.

Of course, I was so eager to eat the pudding I forgot to sauce it before the picture. You’ll have to use your imagination.

Peaches have also made another recent appearance here on MSCK – if you missed it, have a look at my peach salsa recipe.

So what else is going on today in the Summer Fest world of stone fruits?

• Sara at Cooking Channel: Savory Stone Fruit recipes.
• Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple: Riesling Poached Pluots.
• Margaret at A Way to Garden: What is stone fruit, anyhow? Plus: Clafoutis batter revisited.
• Caroline at The Wright Recipes: Ginger and Vanilla Poached Peaches.
• The FN Dish: Paula’s Perfect Peach Cobbler.
• Alison at Food2: Peachy Party Foods.
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Peaches & Cream Cupcakes.
• Liz on Healthy Eats: Puttin’ Up Peach Pickles, Compote and More.
• Food Network UK: How to Poach a Peach.
• Judy of Divina Cucina: Chocolate Amaretti Baked Apricots.
• The Gilded Fork: dossier & recipes featuring peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries, almonds, coconuts.
• Cate at Sweetnicks: Blueberry Peach Smoothies.
• Tara at Tea & Cookies: Making Peach Jam.
• Caron of San Diego Foodstuff: grilled peach parfait and coconut peach gazpacho.
• Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free peach-blueberry buckle.
• Paige at The Sister Project: A Summer Fruit Whatchamacallit (not a pie, not a crisp, but delicious).
• Tigress in a Jam: nectarine preserve with summer savory and white pepper.

Coconut-peach gazpacho? Seriously? Yum.

Just for kicks…

Takes you back, huh?

That movie is 30 years old. THIRTY years.

Anyway, today my guest post on steakhouse toasties goes up on Wisconsin Cheese Talk. It’s my first guest post ever, so it’d make me feel all kinds of special if you’d go over and check it out. I’m disabling comments here for this post so if you’d like to leave a comment please head on over to the post on WCT itself to do so.

Today we’re gonna talk about braising.

Braising is a cooking technique that uses two different kinds of heat – moist heat and dry heat.

Braising is typically a pretty long process and is often used for what are generally considered the ‘lesser’ cuts of meat (on account of higher collagen and connective tissue which is very tough if not thoroughly cooked) – such as shoulder or top blade, brisket, shanks, ribs, etc.

Braising meats with high collagen is a wonderful solution to what are sometimes otherwise considered ‘junk’ meats, because the long extended heat of a braise breaks the collagen down into gelatin, which then mixes with the liquids that you’re braising your meat in and gives it a nice body so you can use it to create the perfect sauce for your meal.

Pressure cooking and slow cooking are also forms of braising, but for this particular dish we’re going to use a 13×9 oven-proof pan.

This recipe is from Alice Water’s 2007 cookbook – The Art of Simple Food. It’s a great book and I use it for all kinds of things – I highly recommend checking it out.

The recipe as written calls for dried ancho and chipotle chiles. Since I didn’t have any on hand, I substituted fresh jalapeños and some hot black peppers from my garden and it still turned out great. If I had used the ancho and chipotle it probably would have given the shoulder a more smoky flavor overall – an ancho chile is nothing more than a dried and smoked poblano, and a chipotle a dried and smoked jalapeño. To get them a little closer to the appropriate flavor, I roasted my peppers for a little while first.

Prep time: at least 1 hour, plus time for the meat to temper
Cook time: 2 hours 15 minutes

(This is not your 30 minute week night meal).

Ingredients…

- one ~4 pound pork shoulder

Dry rub:

- 1 tbsp fresh oregano or marjoram
- 1 tsp ground ancho chile (or 1 minced roasted black hot pepper)
- salt, pepper

Braise:

- 2 onions
- 1 carrot
- 3 dried ancho chiles (or 3 roasted jalapeños)
- 1 dried chipotle chile (or 2 roasted black hot peppers)
- 1 head of garlic
- a few black peppercorns
- a few fresh marjoram or oregano sprigs
- 2 cups chicken stock or water

I don’t suspect that many people will have the exact same black hot peppers as I do – you can really sub in any kind of pepper you want, just bear in mind how much desired heat vs. desired sweetness you want in the final product.

First step is to let your meat temper – tempering meat is such a crucial step in cooking and yet it tends to be one of the most overlooked steps. Tempering just means letting your meat get to room temperature before cooking, so that it will all cook evenly once you put it to heat. Tempering and resting are probably the two most easily fixed common mistakes when it comes to any kind of home cooking.

If your pork shoulder is frozen, you can temper it the day before and add the dry rub then, and then refrigerate overnight. This was my process. It’s also great if you can add the dry rub the day before. But, if you’re pressed for time, you can add the dry rub the day of and leave it on the counter for a few hours. Then again, if you’re pressed for time, this is maybe not the best recipe for you.

Once tempered and rubbed, go ahead and nest it in your pan surrounded by the aromats. You should peel and chop all your vegetables, but you don’t need to do much more than a coarse chop for anything – including the garlic – because you will be sending it through a food processor after the braising.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and pour the chicken stock into the pan. Do your best to use homemade stock any time you can, but if you have to get the store bought stuff then make sure it’s low sodium so you can control the salting yourself.

The liquid should come about 1/4 of the way up the meat – add more if needed.

Cook in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, then turn the roast over and cook for another 30 minutes. Finally, turn one last time and cook for another 30 minutes.

Check the liquid throughout the process, if it gets too low you can always add more stock.

Remove the pan from the oven.

Remove the meat from the pan and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Don’t worry about your meat getting cold, as it will continue cooking for some time after being removed from heat thanks to carryover cooking.

Skim the fat off the liquid in the pan, and then take everything from the pan – garlic, onions, carrot, sauce, everything – and pass it through a food processor. Careful with the warm liquid in the processor. Strain thoroughly – I recommend straining at least 2 or 3 times for the best texture. You can check consistency by dipping a spoon and watching the liquid roll off the back of it – it should be a little slow to do so. If you want to thicken it up a bit more than it is, you can add a roux, or perhaps just some heavy cream. If you want to thin it out, just add water or more chicken stock.

Carve the pork shoulder and arrange on a warm platter or dinner plate, with sauce served over top or in a separate sauceboat.

If you can get some nice local pork shoulder to make this dish with, the end result will be absolutely heavenly.

Okay, so it’s about time. I have been mentioning this creamed corn dish on here so many times over that I’m sure you’re just dying to see it and get the recipe (and if not then can you at least just play along and indulge me in this little fantasy? Thanks). I figured it was finally time to post it, and what better opportunity than coinciding with the Summer Fest 2010 week for corn.

Summer Fest is a cross-blog event celebrating peak harvest season and the crops it brings to us. This is the third year of Summer Fest and my first year participating. Each Wednesday for the rest of the summer, or perhaps a bit longer, a group of bloggers will post on a theme ingredient, rounding out the theme by posting their tips, recipes, or stories about the ingredient in question. Each blogger who has then participated will be listed in the posts along with a link to their own posts so if a reader is looking for more on that particular week’s theme, they can find it easily at their fingertips.

This is the second week of Summer Fest (I missed the first, in typical me fashion). The first week was cukes and zukes and you can see the roundup by following my link.

This week, of course, is corn.

So with that, we’re going to do Keller’s creamed corn from the ad hoc at home recipe book that I do love so dearly.

Let’s start with choosing fresh corn. How can you pick a good ear from a not-so-good? The key, as is often the case, is the smell. Take a fresh ear of corn and peel back just a little bit of the shuck from the top, and take a good whiff. It should smell fresh, but not vegetal. It should smell, very literally, like corn – not like leaves, or plant-matter, or growth. It seems a subtle distinction as I type the words here on a page, but when you have two of the varying ears of corn in front of you the difference is actually quite stark.

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients…

- 5-6 ears of fresh corn
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 oz unsalted butter
- 2 fresh limes
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tbsp fresh chives

First step is to shuck the corn and remove it from the cob.

My method for this is to break the ears in half once they have been shucked – this way, when you cut the corn off the cob it won’t have as fall to far and will tend not to bounce all over the counter and the floor quite as much.

Zest the limes and set zest aside. Roll them on the countertop and squeeze the juice out into a small bowl.

Melt the butter in large saucepan over medium heat, and add the corn, cayenne pepper, and lime juice (you should have at least 1 tbsp of lime juice).

A trick from the Keller book – before cooking your corn, put it into a large bowl and put a small bowl of water next to it. Dip your fingertips in the bowl of water, then swish it around in the large bowl of corn and it will attract all the stray pieces of silk out of the corn. Repeat as necessary. Using this method, you should be able to remove about 99% of all the silk from your chopped corn.

Cook for 15-20 minutes over medium heat until liquid has reduced and the corn has started to sizzle just a little bit. You want to make sure your pan is big enough for every kernel to be evenly cooked, it will give the creamed corn a much more uniform flavor in the end.

Add 3/4 cup heavy cream (you can increase or decrease this as you prefer based on consistency) and cook for another 6-8 minutes until it has reduced to your liking.

Add fresh chives and 1 tbsp of lime zest.

Remove from heat and serve.

This is easily the best creamed corn I have ever had in my life. I make it for us far too often, it is getting dangerous. It is so ridiculously delicious though, you’ll soon understand why.

Easy riffing options: swap the heavy cream for coconut milk, and the chives for coconut flakes. And/or swap the cayenne pepper for a minced jalapeño. It’s not better, per se, just different. Don’t ever let Keller know you changed his recipe.

Summer Fest 2010 Participants:

• Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Creamed Corn with Bacon and Rosemary
• Margaret at A Way to Garden: Vintage corn Americana slideshow, and no-frills creamed corn
• The FN Dish: Creamed Corn-Off: Battle of the Southern Cooks
• Alison at Food2: Freezing Corn
• Toby at Healthy Eats: Candied Corn and 4 other recipes
• Michelle at Cooking Channel: Browsing Corn Porn
• Judy/Tuscan Diva: Fried Polenta Crostini with Porcini Ragu
• Jennifer of Gilded Fork: Corn: Sweet Versatility (history, uses & recipes from cocktails to cornbread
• Chef Mark: Gettin’ Corny! (Musings from childhood, tips & fresh-corn recipes)
• Caron of SanDiegoFoodstuff: Chino Corn Risotto with Chanterelles and Burrata
• Caroline at The Wright Recipes: Pickled Corn with Summer Onion and Basil
• White on Rice Couple: BBQ Chicken and Corn Pizza
• Shauna at Gluten Free Girl: a sweet corn risotto (and how to make corn stock with husks and mirepoix)
• Tigress in a Jam: Cream Corn Scones (the perfect way to use up left over roasted or boiled corn):
• Alana at Eating from the Ground Up: Corn on the Kabob (invented by her artist husband):
• Cate O’Malley at Sweetnicks: Corn and Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Caps
• Kelly at Just a Taste: Caramel Corn (plus pics of corn in its various popping stages)
• Paige Orloff of The Sister Project: Life-Changing Corn Pancakes
• Tara at Tea and Cookies: Farro Corn Salad with Tomatoes and Herbs
• Food Network UK blog: Talking Corn

If you’d like to participate in Summer Fest, it’s easy and you are welcome to. Margaret at A Way to Garden is happy to explain.

I just may get the hang of this baking thing yet, cause this one turned out pretty damn good. Baking has never really been my strong suit, as I tend to cook in a more fly-by-night, who-needs-a-recipe style that permits for a little more riffing than is usually appropriate for baking.

But I’m learning.

I have Saint Tigerlily and Gourmet.com to thank for this one – so, thank you for bringing this awesome Summer dish into my life.

Yet another way to deal with an abundance of tomatoes, this pie is seriously delicious. It also gives a great opportunity to use some of the wonderful Silver Queen corn being harvested now in our area, and on top of that you even get a chance to flex your new mayonnaise knowledge.

This is a pretty multi-purpose pie. You can serve it for brunch, lunch, dinner, whatever. It can serve as a vegetarian meal in and of itself, or as a side or appetizer. Makes a great snack, can be served warm or cold, and it re-heats pretty well too.

The crust is one of the best parts about this dish, it’s not a typical pie crust but rather a biscuit crust – so, you definitely want to make the crust from scratch along with the recipe rather than using any store bought stuff. It’s pretty easy though, so let’s get to it.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Bake time: 35 minutes
Cooling time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients…

- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 stick unsalted butter, cold
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 3/4 lb tomatoes (large, preferably)
- 1/3 cup mayonnaise (1 egg yolk, 3/4 cup olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp lemon juice)
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 ears worth of corn, cut from the cob
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped chives
- 1/4 tsp black pepper, fresh
- 1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese

You will need a 9-inch pie dish, a stock pot, a large mixing bowl, and some wax or parchment paper.

First thing to do is assemble the dough.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and 3/4 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add the butter, chopped into small 1-inch square cubes for better dispersion.

Having washed your hands thoroughly before we even started, go ahead and plunge them right into the dough mix and work your fingers through it until it resembles coarse meal.

Slowly add the milk while continuing to work the dough. You can do this in a pastry blender too, if you have one, but hands-on is more fun.

Split the dough in half and roll it up into two large balls. Then, roll one ball out in between two pieces of wax or parchment paper, until it is about an 11-12 inch circle.

I have seen tons of recipes suggesting to use plastic wrap for this step, including this one from Gourmet. I don’t get this. Plastic wrap is a serious struggle, and usually turns your dough into an awful mess and you lose a lot of it to the plastic itself. Saint Tigerlily and I both recommend wax paper instead.

Use the first 12-inch circle in the bottom of the pie dish.

Repeat the same process with the second ball of dough, and set aside.

Next, set the oven to pre-heat at 400 degrees F, and start boiling 4 cups of water in the stock pot. We’re going to peel the tomatoes using the same method we learned in the recent post about stuffing tomatoes with shrimp. Follow that process, peel the tomatoes, then slice length-wise at your desired thickness.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 egg yolk, 3/4 cup olive oil, and 1 tsp lemon juice to make mayonnaise from scratch. This should only take about 5 minutes or so, but if you absolutely HAVE to, you can sub in store bought stuff. Once the mayonnaise is finished, whisk in another 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Shuck corn and cut down the sides of the cob. The best method I have found for this is to break the ears in half, so that the corn doesn’t fall off while you’re cutting it and go all over the counter and floor. Then, put the corn in a bowl after it’s cut from the cob, and set a small bowl next to it filled with water. Dip your hand in the water, then run it through the corn lightly to break up the corn chunks and to catch the strands of corn… hair… string… I don’t know what you call that stuff. Anyway, it will stick to your hand, then you can put your hand in the water and repeat until you have removed it all from the corn.

Chop up your fresh basil and chives and you’re ready to start assembling the pie.

Start with a layer of tomatoes, overlapping, and sprinkle with half the corn, half the basil and chives, some salt and some pepper.

It’s so festive, no?

Repeat for a second layer and add half of the cheese on top.

Pour a layer of all the mayonnaise down, top with the rest of the cheese, and cover with the second dough circle (previously set aside). Make a couple vents in the top of the crust, brush the crust all over with melted butter, and it’s ready to go in the oven.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, or until crust is a golden brown. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Your pie is now ready to be devoured.

You can vegan-ize this dish easily by leaving the cheese out and using a mayonnaise substitute, and a butter substitute in the crust.

What’s your favorite type of pie? Bonus points for fruits or veggies.